I found this sentence in a workbook:
それとこれとは別でしょう。
My translation of this sentence is:
As for that and this, they are different.
What is the significance of the second と? How is the sentence translated with it?
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I'm not quite sure it's a duplicate. It might just be that the asker doesn't know that 別 takes と – oals Mar 09 '16 at 08:04
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@oals but 別 doesn't take と... (それとこれは別でしょう would be perfectly fine!) – broccoli facemask Mar 09 '16 at 08:25
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1@broccoliforest Could それとこれとは別 mean "[this other thing] is different from that and that [two things]"? – Earthliŋ Mar 09 '16 at 08:31
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@Earthliŋ Oh, that's possible (but practically we say それ（とか／や）これ（とか）とは別 in that situation). – broccoli facemask Mar 09 '16 at 08:36
1 Answers
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Originally, と was used after each word in a list. From here:
いくつかの事柄を列挙する意を表す。「君―ぼく―の仲」
[補説] 並立する語ごとに「と」を用いるのが本来の用法であるが、現代語ではいちばんあとにくる「と」を省略するのが普通となっている。
The last と in a list is usually omitted at least in modern Japanese. In this sentence, you can safely omit the second と, but explicitly putting the second と emphasizes that these two (それ and これ) are contrasted. AとBと is still common in formal or complex sentences.
